REVIEW: Dark Breaks the Dawn by Sara B. Larson - Paige

Disclaimer: None, I got the audiobook with my own audible credits!

Rating:

Genre: YA Fantasy

Recommended Age: 15+ (death, violence, gore, sexual references)

Pages: 320

Author Website

Amazon Link

Synopsis: 

On her eighteenth birthday, Princess Evelayn of Eadrolan, the Light Kingdom, can finally access the full range of her magical powers. The light looks brighter, the air is sharper, and the energy she can draw when fighting feels almost limitless.

But while her mother, the queen, remains busy at the war front, in the Dark Kingdom of Dorjhalon, the corrupt king is plotting. King Bain wants control of both kingdoms, and his plan will fling Evelayn onto the throne much sooner than she expected.

In order to defeat Bain and his sons, Evelayn will quickly have to come into her ability to shapeshift, and rely on the alluring Lord Tanvir. But not everyone is what they seem, and the balance between the Light and Dark comes at a steep price.

Let’s start this off with this: this was one of the cheesiest YA books I’ve ever read and it had oodles and oodles of YA tropes… but it was actually surprisingly okay. The plot was pretty good and the writing was pretty well done and it did well making the language stick to the time period.

However, as you can see above, I didn’t talk about a lot of the usual things I do. The book was actually a struggle to get through the first 41 chapters. The world building wasn’t there, the characters weren’t developed outside of two of the main characters, and the book was really confusing to follow at times. Things happened or the characters did things that I didn’t understand what for. I was for sure I was going to give the book a 2 star rating until the last chapter. The last chapter surprised me so much with its misdirection and its terror that I had to bump up the score significantly. I’m going to read the sequel based solely on the last chapter. Honestly, that chapter should have come sooner in the novel as the rest of it feels so awful in comparison. I feel that the book is one big prologue to an amazing novel… aka the sequel.

Verdict: Plie your way to the last chapter and then to the sequel.

REVIEW: Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe by Preston Norton - Erin

Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe

by Preston Norton

Hardcover, 400 pages

Published May 22nd 2018 by Disney-Hyperion

ISBN: 9781484790625

ARC

About: 

Cliff Hubbard is a huge loser. Literally. His nickname at Happy Valley High School is Neanderthal because he's so enormous-6'6" and 250 pounds to be exact. He has no one at school and life in his trailer park home has gone from bad to worse ever since his older brother's suicide.

There's no one Cliff hates more than the nauseatingly cool quarterback, Aaron Zimmerman. Then Aaron returns to school after a near-death experience with a bizarre claim: while he was unconscious he saw God, who gave him a list of things to do to make Happy Valley High suck less. And God said there's only one person who can help: Neanderthal.

To his own surprise, Cliff says he's in. As he and Aaron make their way through the List, which involves a vindictive English teacher, a mysterious computer hacker, a decidedly unchristian cult of Jesus Teens, the local drug dealers, and the meanest bully at HVHS--Cliff feels like he's part of something for the first time since losing his brother. But fixing a broken school isn't as simple as it seems, and just when Cliff thinks they've completed the List, he realizes their mission hits closer to home than he ever imagined. (Goodreads)

Rating: 

Review:

I first heard about this book during a Booklist webinar. It interested me so much that I hunted down a ARC copy of it. I definitely was not disappointed.  I loved that even though our main character Cliff’s life is pretty crappy, he still has hope.  He comes close to giving up, but fights through it. His inner dialogue is a perfect mix of sarcasm, geek, and is hysterical. I was rooting for him the whole book. I’m not sure on my own religious stance, but their list of things to do that may or may not have come from God is a perfect plot device. It kept me interested and guessing if and how they might fulfill everything on the list. I loved how characters that I wasn’t a fan of in the beginning were able to evolve and change into better people. I think that teens who read this book will be able to relate to something in it, whether they’re one of the “cool” kids or an “outsider” or one of the many other groups in between. They do touch on “mature” themes such as drinking, drugs, and sex that younger teens might not be ready for yet. This book also discusses the tough subject matter of bullying, suicide and abuse so if those are a trigger for you, you may want to skip this one. 

*To see more of Erin's reviews please click her signature to go to her blog

REVIEW: Nice Try, Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke - Paige

Rating: 

Genre: YA Contemporary

Recommended Age: 15+ (underage alcohol usage, sex, trigger warnings for suicide)

Pages: 416

Author Website

Amazon Link

Disclaimer: I got this book through KidLitExchange. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: 

It’s Kind of a Funny Story meets Daria in the darkly hilarious tale of a teen’s attempt to remake her public image and restore inner peace through reality TV. The only thing 17-year-old Jane Sinner hates more than failure is pity. After a personal crisis and her subsequent expulsion from high school, she’s going nowhere fast. Jane’s well-meaning parents push her to attend a high school completion program at the nearby Elbow River Community College, and she agrees, on one condition: she gets to move out.

Jane tackles her housing problem by signing up for House of Orange, a student-run reality show that is basically Big Brother, but for Elbow River Students. Living away from home, the chance to win a car (used, but whatever), and a campus full of people who don’t know what she did in high school… what more could she want? Okay, maybe a family that understands why she’d rather turn to Freud than Jesus to make sense of her life, but she’ll settle for fifteen minutes in the proverbial spotlight.

As House of Orange grows from a low-budget web series to a local TV show with fans and shoddy T-shirts, Jane finally has the chance to let her cynical, competitive nature thrive. She’ll use her growing fan base, and whatever Intro to Psychology can teach her, to prove to the world—or at least viewers of substandard TV—that she has what it takes to win.

I am not a fan of YA Contemporary and honestly, I didn’t remember ordering this book from KLE. So when it arrived I was not excited to read it. Then I read it. The book isn’t a normal contemporary. It’s darkly funny like Daria and the main character feels genuine. The author included some diverse characters in it, including a bisexual best friend and a love interest who suffers from what appears to be suffering from OCD. The main character herself suffers from clinical depression. The plot and pacing are very well done and I loved the diary format of the book. I seem to be loving these of late.

However, I did feel that the book didn’t focus on some of the side characters enough. They aren’t very well developed in comparison to Jane. The father is mentioned to have certain traits and some of the housemates are too, but beyond that, they aren’t very well developed and the ending is a little ambiguous for everyone. While I liked that type of ending, I know a lot of others really won’t.

Verdict: If you like dark humor you’ll love this book.

REVIEW: Where She Went by Gayle Forman - Valeria

Title: Where She Went

Author: Gayle Forman

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile

Publication: April 5th 2011

Cover Rating: 3/5

Goodreads | Amazon

So this one was such a good read. I read If I Stay last year, before the movie... Was it last year? Anyways, I read the first one and I thought that it was such a beautiful book. Since my library had it, I checked it out and read it and loved it. You start getting glimpses as to what happened in the past 3 years after Mia woke up and how things started changing. Its such a beautiful and sad book, I cried, But there was so many amazing things in it that ... There is just ... I'm glad I read the book when I did, instead of soon after If I Stay. Just because of personal things, this book came to me when it was fated to.

CHEESY!

Yus.

Recommend it?

YES. 100%

Overall, I gave the book 5/5 stars.

Author Spotlight: Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge by Lisa Jensen + Interview

I've painted pottery, sold movie tickets and books, drawn cartoons, and hand-crafted fabric dolls. Now I get to write full-time; the hours are flexible and there's no dress code. My movie reviews appear on Rotten Tomatoes. My novel, "Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge," comes out in July, 2018, from Candlewick. My historical/fantasy "Alias Hook," was published by Thomas Dunne Books in July, 2014. My historical pirate novel, "The Witch From the Sea," was published in 2001.

Title: Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy/Retelling

Author: Lisa Jensen

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Publication: Juily 10th 2018

Cover Rating: 5/5

Reading format: Provided ARC

Goodreads | Amazon

Beauty and the Beast is one of today's most highly romanticized stories. Movies, books, collectible items, have all been made in the name of this story. I can't count on my hands how many retold novels have been published in the past five years alone of this grand story of a girl falling in love with a beast. A beast giving this girl his library and then his heart. It's a beautiful idea but it truly is a facade. 

We start this book through the eyes of a girl, a girl who is heading to a town to beg for a job at some rich guys house. The guy happens to be Beast before he was Beast, AKA the Chevalier. And the girl happens to be Lucie, a girl who becomes a maid at his chateau. 

Lucie being a maid for the Chevalier means that she is his and he does something pretty brutal to her and that causes a string of reactions that lead to him being cursed and becoming Beast. Lucie might have been there when it happened but she was definitely not the one who caused it. This was something that was a long time coming. But is this curse really what it seems to be? Is the Cavalier really who he seems to be? 

This story started out slightly average. A bit boring if you want blatant honesty. There was a girl who needed to escape her stepfather's house before he noticed how her body had grown. So with that right there the book starts out with a demeaning sexual tone. And with that tone already set, I don't truly understand the anger behind a lot of people's reaction to the sexual assault scene while they didn't say anything about the stepfather thing. 

Everyone always says how much they love this fairytale but the aspect they love so much is the library and the love story. I don't think anyone truly grasps the real nature behind this book. In its depths the story is about a man who was already a beast, a witch just did the world of making his exterior match his interior but we never really stop to think what exactly the Beast did to become such a horrible man. Surely there has to be more to the story of just a man being spoiled and turning away an old lady seeking shelter. Lisa Jensen put a face to that horrible thing and people are mad about it. Essentially a man was already a beast inside and when he became a beast on the outside something changed and he became a real man. Showing someone who they truly are by giving it a face is humbling.

This book is very refreshing and while, yes I am kind of sad about my favorite story being portrayed as something so harsh, it seems more realistic than just a fantasy story of a girl, a beast, and a library. This book has a moral to it, that moral being that sometimes what is viewed as a curse from outsiders is actually the truth and what is viewed as the truth is actually the curse. 

In the end, I am so very glad the author decided to write this book the way she did. Belle got her library and Beast got his happily ever after, even if they weren't the normal ways that we are used to hearing about.

Overall, I gave the book 4/5 stars.

What was the inspiration behind writing this retelling of Beauty and the Beast?

 

I love Beauty and the Beast, but I was always disappointed at the ending, when noble Beast turns back into the handsome prince. That's so unfair! Beast did all the work of wooing Beauty. Beast is the one she falls in love with. Why should the prince get the girl?  So I wanted to rewrite the story so that Beast, himself, is the hero he deserves to be, not the prince.

 

Why did you choose to tell the story from Lucie's point of view instead of the more traditional way with "Belle" being the main focal point?

 

Because I approached the tale from the viewpoint of someone who always loved Beast better than the prince, I wanted the heroine in my book to reflect that point of view. Wouldn't it be more interesting, I thought, if there was another woman in the story (not the Beauty character) who loves Beast just the way he is? Servant girl Lucie has a very good reason to hate the prince, who was arrogant and cruel, but she falls in love with the Beast who magically appears in his place. Despite his savage appearance, Beast is kind-hearted and generous.

 

Imagine how horrifying it would be for Lucie when the Beauty character (I call her Rose) arrives at the castle, with the power to break the spell! Her beloved Beast would be gone and the evil prince would be restored. Lucie will do anything to stop the story from playing out as we expect it to, and preserve her Beast!

 

If you had to choose between never writing again or never reading a book again, which would you pick?

 

Oh, man, that's a tough one! Reading is a bullet train to infinite worlds, ideas, and stories; what a tragedy it would be to get kicked off that train! But writing is life's blood to me. The act of writing, itself, shaping the language, is a huge pleasure to me! Also, I don't know what I think about something, or what my own inner feelings are, until I write about them. It's how I understand the world. So I would have to choose writing.

 

Why do you think so many people are obsessed with Beauty and the Beast?

 

It's irresistible! Who doesn't love the story about a brave young woman who sees beyond the face of a monster to the noble soul inside? It has something for everybody, whether you identify with the young woman's courage, or the misunderstood "monster."

 

Are you currently working on any new books?

 

Always! Next time, I'm taking a break from fairy tales (after Beast and Alias Hook, which was inspired by Peter Pan) and retelling a story from Shakespeare. Of course, it will be a bit different in my version!

REVIEW: Legendary by Stephanie Garber - Jenny

Title: Legendary

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Author: Stephanie Garber

Publisher: FlatIron

Publication: May 29th 2018

Cover Rating: 5/5

Reading format: Provided ARC/Owned Hardcover

Goodreads | Amazon

Legendary by Stephanie Garber is the second book in the Caraval Trilogy. Last year, I go to read an advance copy of Caraval and I completely adored it. The story was very atmospheric and so vibrant that it was impossible not to fall in love with it. I waited an entire year for Legendary and was lucky enough to also get an advance copy of the book and let me tell you, although I found the book to be a little lacking in the action department, it was no less atmospheric or vibrant. Legendary is the marvelous sequel we have all been looking forward to.

In Caraval, the story is told from Scarlet’s perspective, but in Legendary we get the story from Donatella’s perspective, Scarlet’s sister. Tella might live life a little wilder than Scarlet but I actually preferred the story coming from Scarlet’s point of view for some reason. 

In this story, Caraval is going to be performing again. Usually, they only perform once a year but this is a special event. If you thought the first book was full of magic then you are in for a wild ride with this sequel. Scarlet might not be playing the game this time but Tella is and she has to win in order to save herself and her mother. The stakes are even higher in this book. What will Tella do to win? This book is the ultimate love story, but not in the way you might be thinking. What would you do to save someone you love?

In the end, Legendary was a very solid continuance of the series. The only gripes I have is I didn’t really enjoy the story as much coming from Tella and I was really hoping for some more action. There were places where the book lulled and I found my attention drifting off but the book always pulled me back in. I cannot wait for the final book in this series to see what the author does with it.

Overall, I gave the book 4/5 stars.

REVIEW: No Saints in Kansas by Amy Brashear - Paige

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from KidLitExchange in return for my opinion. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Rating:

Genre: YA Mystery/Thriller

Recommended Age: 15+ (murder, high school drama, and violence)

Pages: 320

Author Website

Amazon Link

Synopsis: 

A gripping reimagining of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and the brutal murders that inspired it

November is usually quiet in Holcomb, Kansas, but in 1959, the town is shattered by the quadruple murder of the Clutter family. Suspicion falls on Nancy Clutter’s boyfriend, Bobby Rupp, the last one to see them alive.

New Yorker Carly Fleming, new to the small Midwestern town, is an outsider. She tutored Nancy, and (in private, at least) they were close. Carly and Bobby were the only ones who saw that Nancy was always performing, and that she was cracking under the pressure of being Holcomb’s golden girl. The secret connected Carly and Bobby. Now that Bobby is an outsider, too, they’re bound closer than ever.

Determined to clear Bobby’s name, Carly dives into the murder investigation and ends up in trouble with the local authorities. But that’s nothing compared to the wrath she faces from Holcomb once the real perpetrators are caught. When her father is appointed to defend the killers of the Clutter family, the entire town labels the Flemings as traitors. Now Carly must fight for what she knows is right.

Okay so I’ve not read Capote’s In Cold Blood… but is it anything like this book? Let me explain: this book was okay but the synopsis of it had me wanting more than what I got. I liked that the book had really short chapters because it really made me read it faster. I like how we jumped into the action of the book and I felt that for the most part the writing was fantastic and it sucked you into the book.

However, I didn’t like that the characters had so little back story to them and that there were a lot of characters that easily were forgotten. The main character was wrote really bad. She kept making the same mistakes over and over again and it became really irritating after awhile and it made her very unlikable, but she was already unlikable with some of her other qualities. Lastly, the ending was way too quick and neat for this type of book.

Verdict: I feel like this book was okay, but it could have been better.